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Thursday, August 26, 2010

It was that time again... the time to raise the color bar a few shades lighter. There was only one man for the job, one man I trusted: John O of Antonio Prieto Salon in New York City. Born a natural brunette, I've always experimented with my hair color. In 8th grade I sprayed the infamous Sun-In to lighten my locks to a penny- copper color I was never really satisfied with. In high school, I played with different brands of do- it- yourself highlighting kits which gave me countless shades of auburn and strawberry brown. It wasn't until Junior year of high school that I went to a professional to lighten my locks to a achieve those golden hues I had longed for. Expert blonding is hard to come by. Really hard. I mean, even pros don't always get it right. But, I have to say I'm a lucky gal to have found John O at the Antonio Prieto Salon in New York City who has taken my hair color to a whole new level. Poor John spent practically the entire day on my mass of hair, but the end result is spectacular! I have incredible dimension, color and light framing my face... and it all looks super- natural! I went in and was like "yeah so I want lighter hair like this Victoria Secret model I saw, but I don't have her picture, but I'll try to describe it..." and POOF... the perfect shade of blonde for me! You won't get results like this from a bottle people. When it comes to dramatically changing your hair color, it's best to seek out the pros, especially with blonding! Not everyone knows hot to get a perfect hue of blonde for your unique coloring. The same goes with the perfect cut, but I'll save that story for another post ;) If you're in New York, go to John O at the Antonio Prieto Salon, and tell him I sent you.

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

I actually hate getting manicures. It's pretty time consuming and quite boring at the same time.. that combination for me alone, is enough to keep me away from my local nail salon. But then there's the price to consider while also taking into consideration that your manicure will probably chip in a day or two....PLUS bacteria laden tools- YUCK (unless you bring your own)! I prefer to give myself a 15 minute manicure at home and save a few bucks while I'm at it! After you get into the hang of it, upkeep is about 10 minutes flat!

Tools:

Orange Stick

Nail clipper

3-Way Nail File (the kind that has 3 different textures to shape the nail)

OR get quick drying nail polish with a built- in topcoat like I used here. *pictured below

Remove any old polish with nail polish remover, clip and file nails to desired length and shape. Square is the easiest to do and maintain. The roughest texture of the filer is best to trim down the size of the nail, while the finer textures are good to shape edges. Next, apply your favorite hand cream to hands and use an orange stick to push back cuticles gently. With a cotton pad, remove cream residue from nails with nail polish remover. Apply one coat of base coat, one coat quick dry nail polish (or 2 coats of regular), and one coat of top coat if you applied regular polish. That's it!

This product is great deal because you get polish and topcoat in one, and you only need 1 coat. Plus, the brush is a flat rectangle, mimicking the shape of the nail bed, making application super- easy.